


Rumors

by lunarlychallenged



Series: Newsies x Reader - Hogwarts Edition [1]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Hogwarts AU, Ravenclaw!Davey Jacobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 07:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15165356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarlychallenged/pseuds/lunarlychallenged
Summary: If Les hadn't told everybody at Hogwarts that you were fooling around with Davey, you would probably never have told Davey that you wanted to.





	Rumors

McGonagall would never have wished for unity among the houses if she had known how seriously the current batch of boys would take it. Dumbledore would have pushed even harder, if only to see how much farther it would go with a little encouragement.

Kids from every House were in on it. You would spot Ravenclaw signs in the Gryffindor section at Quidditch matches. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs would partner up automatically during lessons. Pranks would be played regardless of House and age. They were all really good friends, and it was awesome to watch.

The downside to it was that gossip spread like wildfire. Everybody could find everything out, since somebody from every House would hear about it immediately. Usually the rumors had nothing to do with you. You would hear that Race had charmed his cigar so the smoke was a love potion, and a dozen girls and guys had started following him around before a professor caught wind of it. It only took ten minutes for news of Specs accidentally loosing a chimaera in Care of Magical Creatures to spread across the school.

The fact that you became the center of one was so unexpected, so out of the realm of possibility, that you didn’t know what to say at first.

You had been laying out by the lake with various other students, making the most of one of the last nice days of the year. You were not alerted to the strange atmosphere by something anybody said. It was the fact that nobody was saying much at all that caught your attention.

“Katherine,” you said slowly. She was an awful liar, so you thought you might be able to figure out what was wrong just by seeing what she had to lie about. “Is something wrong?”

Her eyes grew wide. “No, Y/N, nothing at all.”

Your eyes narrowed in response. “Really? Why so glum, chum?”

“Nothing wrong at all. What gave you that impression?” She fiddled with the green and silver striped tie that was around her neck, unlooped.

The quiet conversation around you dulled even further. You sat up. “Guys, did something happen?”

“Not something,” Elmer mumbled. “Somebody.”

“Somebody happened?” You scowled. “That makes no sense.”

“Y/N,” Elmer said slowly. He had looked so carefree a moment earlier, but now he had a crease between his eyes. “Les happened.”

You froze. Les, dear though he may have been, was a hazard. He had loose lips. He had no sense of secrecy. He spoke before learning the facts. “What did he do?”

That deer-in-headlights look on Katherine’s face melted into pity. “He told some of the other kids in his year that you and Davey ‘studied’ together all of the time. He went on and on about it.”

“We do study together,” you said numbly.

“That’s not what people are saying,” she said with a grimace.

None of the others asked if it was true. You weren’t exactly in their group, so they didn’t know every facet of your life, but they knew better than to ask. 

Davey, the epitome of Ravenclaw, was a force to be reckoned with. He got high marks on every assignment he completed, but he occasionally refused to do an assignment he thought was pointless or disagreed with on a fundamental level. He spoke with the eloquence and confidence of a king - you wouldn’t be surprised if he became Minister of Magic one day. All of that aside, he shied away from every chance at romance that came his way. His friends knew that he wouldn’t be having sex with you, but anybody who didn’t know Davey might think otherwise.

You dressed up a little on the nights you studied with him, in case he might notice. You set aside food for him when he missed meals. You partnered with him in classes. If somebody outside of Y/H knew who you were, it was probably in relation to him.

Best case scenario, it looked like you were a couple who studied together. Worst case, it looked like you went to a lot of effort to “study” with him.

“Oh, sweet Merlin,” you groaned. 

“It’s not so bad,” JoJo said. Even JoJo, with his everlasting optimism, sounded noncommittal.

“Who’s heard?”

Silence.

“Oh, no,” you said. You covered your mouth with your hand. “You have got to be kidding me. Has Davey heard?”

Silence.

“I don’t know,” Katherine finally said. “It’s really getting around, but Davey doesn’t talk to a lot of people. Maybe not?”

You flopped back down into the grass. The farthest you had ever gone with Davey was regular studying, but it could never get farther than that if he was too embarrassed to look at you again.

 

 

You walked to the Library, nearly sick with worry that Davey wouldn’t show up. The two of you always studied for Transfiguration and History of Magic on Thursdays. You didn’t think Davey really needed your help, but he always said that between the two of you, surely every concept could be understood.

The study sessions were so constant, so unchanging, that neither of you ever bothered confirming that they would happen. Both of you always knew, and you usually loved that. You loved that Davey could always be counted on. Today, you hated it. If he didn’t know anything was wrong, you hadn’t wanted to alert him to a problem. You had not checked to see if he was coming, so you were going to the Library with nothing but blind hope that Davey would be there.

The sight of Davey, sitting at the table by the Potions section, was almost painful in its perfection. He either didn’t know that his brother was the actual worst, or he didn’t care.

“Hey, Jacobs,” you said. 

He rolled his eyes. He always complained about people calling each other by their last names. He said that there was no point giving people original first names, if everybody just used the name the entire family shared. “Y/N.”

Your hands shook a little while you spread out notes and books. “How’s it going? We haven’t talked in a few days.”

He gave you a questioning look. “We haven’t talked any less than usual.”

“That doesn’t mean that you won’t have something new to say,” you said. He wasn’t looking at you as though there was anything different about you, so maybe he really didn’t know about the rumors.

He told you about a letter from his parents that he got at breakfast. His mother was so excited for him to come home for Christmas, in no small part because Davey was finally old enough to use magic outside of school. His parents were Muggles, and you thought they were pretty excited to see what he had been learning.

The two of you agreed to work through the History of Magic homework first. Honestly, these study sessions were the only reason you were able to pay attention to the lessons. You wanted to be able to keep up with Davey; to be his equal. By the time you were starting your second paragraph, the flutter in your chest had everything to do with Davey, and nothing to do with what people thought you did with him.

“If you get into history books, they’ll call you Davey the Dastardly,” you teased. As if. Davey didn’t have a cruel bone in his body.

“Merlin, no.” Davey smiled at you. “It’ll be David the Dastardly. Davey is the worst villain name you could possibly have.”

You laughed, but the joy shrivelled up when a group of students walked by your table. “Using studying as foreplay is such a Ravenclaw thing to do,” a boy said. He didn’t bother whispering; maybe he meant for you to hear it.

“Who knows what they’re studying,” another agreed. “There are some pretty kinky spells, you know.”

You glared after them, mortified. You might have hexed them, if it wasn’t for Davey. You didn’t want him to get in trouble for something you did. Angry tears prickled. You tried to blink them away, putting on a jovial voice. “I have no idea what they’re talking about. Prats.”

Davey was magenta. He sighed and put his quill down, finally looking up at you. “We both know what they’re talking about. We just have to wait it out - it’ll die down eventually.”

You sagged against the back of the chair. “Les sure knows how to spread a rumor.”

He cringed. “I have no idea why he said all of that.” Davey refused to meet your eyes. He stared at a smear of ink on his essay, blushing even further.

“It’s my fault,” you said miserably. It would be better to come clean. Maybe once Davey shot you down, you would be able to get over him. You would stop seeing the way his tie brought out the blue of his eyes, and you wouldn’t think it was cute when he stuck out his tongue while he wrote. “Everybody knows how much I fancy you, and now you’re getting made fun of for it. I’m so sorry.”

His head shot up. “No, Les heard Jack telling me to ask you to Hogsmeade. Les has been talking about it nonstop. When he realized that you were the person I study with, he must have gotten some stupid idea - you actually like me? I had no idea.”

You spluttered out a laugh. “Of course I do. I’ve liked you for ages. That’s probably why Jack got on your case. Katherine definitely knows.”

“Jack knew that I already wanted to ask you,” Davey said.

“You know, usually people want somebody else to take the blame,” you said with a crooked smile. “We must be the only people arguing to take it ourselves.”

“Probably,” he agreed with a rueful grin.

Seeing the smile on his face washed away every ounce of fear. You were embarrassed, sure, but you had nothing to be scared of now that you knew Davey wasn’t angry. He didn’t even look that upset. “Still, I’m sorry. It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is. My stupid crush didn’t help.”

“It isn’t that stupid,” Davey said. “If you want to - if this hasn’t ruined everything, I mean - we could go to Hogsmeade together. I’ll totally get it if you don’t want to, though, this is all really -”

“That would be really great,” you said. Your hands were shaking a little, but you didn’t bother trying to hide it. “I would love that.”

He smiled at his textbook. “Awesome. It’s a date.” There didn’t seem to be anything else to say, but the silence felt thick. You couldn’t figure out how to break it, but Davey’s smile shifted a little with humor. “Now you’ll get to be in the history books too. Lover of ‘David the Dastardly,’ they’ll call you.”

“Please,” you scoffed. “I’ll get my own name.” The bickering broke the lingering awkwardness, so you reached your foot over to touch his. He didn’t move away, even once the studying resumed.


End file.
